A great week for the Vikings' boys

The Vikings beat the Saints on Thursday, and then took second in the Kennedy Classic.

Harper James proved deadly from the three-point range. He showed this on Thursday when the Colton Vikings stepped onto the court against the North Clackamas Christian Saints. James entered the game late in the first period, just as the Saints were beginning to pull ahead with a score of 11-6. He cashed in a three before the period ended, and then went on to nail four more three-pointers before the half closed, with the Vikings leading 31-23.

We started off slow and were unable to knock down outside shots as they packed the key with their zone defense, Coach Brandon Kishpaugh said. But when Harper came off the bench and started knocking down threes it really opened things up for us, and we got into a good rhythm in the second half and were able to finish with the win despite not playing our best game.

Thursdays top performers were Harper James, finishing with 18 points, sinking six threes, Kishpaugh said. Anthony Basargin, with 14 points, and Kyver Raasch, with eight points and a number of good defensive plays inside.

Stanczyk gets the game-ball for this victory though, showing talent that will help the Vikings all season.

Probably the games MVP: Rhedyn Stanczyk, who had 10 points and played phenomenal defensive on [the Saints] point guard all night, Kishpaugh said. His ability to pressure the ball the entire length of the floor is a tremendous asset.

This was the second preseason game the Vikings played. Before the varsity game, the JV team also took a win over the Saints, finishing their game 65-24.

The Vikings followed Thursday nights win with a win and loss in the Kennedy Classic.

Friday

Friday night we got off to a better start and had another balanced scoring attack against the Monroe Dragons, Kishpaugh said. We were up 25-19 at the half and never looked back.

The Vikings closed the game with a 49-30 win.

As you can see we played tremendous defense in the second half and only gave up 11 points, Kishpaugh said. Stanczyk did another fantastic job pressuring [Monroes] point guard and forced a number of turnovers, which led to easy buckets for us.

Drexler Hall had his best scoring output for the season finishing with 14 points to go along with his good defense and court leadership, Kishpaugh said. Basargin continued to find his stroke and finished with 16 points including a buzzer beater from the top of the key to finish the half.

Kyver Raasch also played well, finishing with eight points.

Saturday

The following day, the Vikings played the Kennedy Trojans in the championship game.

[We] got off to a hot start, Kishpaugh said. The Vikings got up to a 17-9 lead in the first period, but things fell apart for them in the second.

Second quarter foul trouble and the inability to finish possessions on defense allowed [the Trojans] to crawl back in it, Kishpaugh said. The half-time score was 26-27 with Kennedy in the lead.

With the score tight, it was either teams game. Back and forth, the Vikings and Trojans swapped the lead.

With roughly 30 seconds left, and after a pair of threes from each team, Anthony Basargin hit a three-point shot that looked like it would seal the victory, Kishpaugh said. But the tournament MVP from Kennedy, Brett Traeger, got open and hit a three-point shot to tie the game.

As the clock ticked under a minute, Basargin hit a jump shot to put the Vikings up by two. However, the Trojans wouldnt have it. They tied it up before the buzzer, taking the game into overtime.

Dane Norton fouled out and the Vikings missed a couple opportunities, Kishpaugh said, leading to the Trojans taking a close 62-59 win.

We weren't able to finish with the win, Kishpaugh said. However it was a great game and one that I think we can learn a lot from, both in how to play and execute in close games and in the need to be able to play physical yet not pick up cheap fouls. Harper James finished with 12 points, along with Basargin and Kyver Raasch. Dane Norton finished with nine points and seven boards, despite being in foul trouble. Anthony Basargin and Kyver Raasch both received all-tournament honors, and we took home the second-place trophy. It would have been nice to win, but it was a good learning experience and I think our guys played well.